1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data compression apparatus and method. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for improving a memory compression ratio and access speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, digital data processing systems equipped with memory devices operate with various memory management techniques for efficient memory utilization. One approach is to compress data in a writing mode and to decompress the data for use in a reading mode. In this case, an increase of a compression ratio improves memory utilization, but reduces compression/decompression speed, resulting in an increase of memory access time. In contrast, a low compression ratio decreases the memory access time, but the memory utilization is degraded. Accordingly, there is a need to develop a data compression/decompression method that is capable of achieving a high compression ratio without compromising memory access speed.